36 JOURNEYS IN PERSIA LETTER xvn
and 5000 feet high, below which tine-green torrents,
crystalline in their purity, rage and boom, thnndering on
their way to join the Ab-i-Diz. The valleys are short, and}
elevated from 6000 to 7000 feet, and the tracks dignified,
by the name of roads pass along them and at great
altitudes on the sides of the main ranges, bnt are com-
pelled continually to make dips and ascents of many
thousand feet to reach and emerge from the fords of the
rivers which dash through the magnificent rifts and
canons.
To the south-east of the Kuh-i-Eang the formation is
orderly and intelligible; to the north-west all is confusion
and disorder, but a sublime confusion. Two great passes
to the north and south of this magnificent mountain arfr
the only ways of communication between the region of
Upper Elam and the Bakhtiari country. The northern
pass was ascended from Dima. The Kharba, one of the
head-streams of the Zainderud, rises on it and fertilises a
beautiful valley about fourteen miles in length. That
pass, the Gal-i-Bard-i-Jamal (the pass of Jamal's stone),
the stone being a great detached rock near the summit,
and the Gal-i-Gav (the Cattle Pass) on the southern side,
are both over 10,000 feet in altitude. They are seldom
traversed by the natives, and only in well-armed parties,
as both are very dangerous.
The Kuh-i-Eang must now be regarded as the true
birthplace of the Zainderud and the Karun, though their
sources have hitherto been placed in the Zard Kuh. A
tributary of the Ab-i-Diz, and locally considered as its
head-water, rises also in the Kuh-i-Eang.
Aziz Khan, who had gone to his tents, has returned
with a very nice young servant and another mare, and
with him noise and " go." He has such a definite per-
sonality, and is so energetic in his movements, that the
camps are dull without him. He is a fearful beggar.